Information and guidance for businesses and voluntary sector organisations
What is Business Continuity (BC)?
BC is about providing resilience in your organisation.
It starts with looking at the services or products that you provide, the activities that support them and any potential threats. Once you have done this, you can develop plans that will help you to recover and continue delivery following any type of disruption. It gives you a solid base to lean on in times of crisis and provides reassurance.
What are the emerging threats to organisations?
The Business Continuity Institutes Horizon Scan Report 2020 highlights the top five risks and threats to organisations:
- Cyber-attack and data breach
- IT and telecom outage
- Extreme weather events (e.g. floods, storms, freeze, etc.)
- Critical infrastructure failure
- Lack of talent/key skills
Other issues that the report also looks at that could have Business Continuity implications include:
- regulatory changes
- natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.)
- interruption to utility supply
- introduction of new technology (e.g. Big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI))
Who else can provide information?
There are a number of organisations that can provide support on a range of BC topics. Here is a selection of those:
- National Cyber Security Centre - provides guidance on a number of cyber security subjects including National Cyber Security Centre - Cyber Security: Small Business Guid and National Cyber Security Centre - Cyber Security: Small Charity Guide
- Business Continuity Institute (BCI) - Set up in 1994 the BCI is a leading organisation for BC and resilience professionals. The BCI provides training and guidance on Business Continuity Management (BCM)
- Essex Resilience Forum (ERF) - a group of organisations who respond to emergencies and provide advice on being prepared
- Gov.UK - guidance on BC including a BCM Toolkit
- The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NVCO) provide a range of guidance for voluntary sector organisations, including risk and BC
- ACT (Action Counter Terrorism) Awareness eLearning - A free training course from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office that provides information to help people better understand current terrorist methods
- Stay Safe - National Counter Terrorism policing is providing advice to the public on the steps they can take to keep safe in the rare event of a firearms or weapons attack